


Lady Spring

by hips_of_steel



Series: Seasons [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M, Spirits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 21:58:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6875224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hips_of_steel/pseuds/hips_of_steel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Each season has a spirit, and each spirit has a human Guardian who keeps their flame. One season has decided to take fate into her own hands when she introduces her Guardian to the Guardian of Winter, a young woman named Natalia Arlovskaya.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lady Spring

My family has been the Guardian of Lady Spring as long as we can remember. My great great great (maybe one or two more greats in there) grandfather brought her from England to rest here in America, land of the free and the home of the brave.

Our family initially thrived in this new land, and we had to attribute our success to Lady Spring. She helped us tend to our gardens, kept peace between our family and the Native Americans, chased prey to our home during the spring, and gave us gentle weather. And when it was time for her current Guardian to take an apprentice, all the family members with the sight were gathered up and presented to her, and she would chose her next Guardian.

It had worked since the time of the American Revolution, and many of my relatives often married others with the sight, increasing the likelihood of their own children being born with the sight.

But over time, as the world grew smaller, and we lost some of our family to the harsh reality that the world does not like those who can see beyond the normal realm. Soon, the children born without the sight turned against those born with it, out of rage and jealousy.

When my grandfather was a young man, he took his infant daughter, Elaine, and ran away from one of his older brothers, who tried to commit him to an asylum. Later, he remarried, and he had a son, Alistair. Elaine was my mother.

After my grandfather, my mother took up the mantle of Lady Spring's Guardian, and when my mother developed cancer and took an apprentice, my cousin Kyle and I were presented to the spirit, and she chose me.

I was my mother's only child, and although my uncle Alistair had three children, only one of them had the complete sight, the oldest, Kyle. Zoe, my youngest cousin, can see minor spirits, and Avery is normal.

After mother passed, I became the Guardian of Spring.

The lantern sat in my car seat, suddenly coming to life as I drove through the rain up the Clackamas River. In the dark, I hoped I wouldn't be pulled over by the sheriff as I continued into the night. Western Oregon was not a kind place to live when the March storms began rolling in from the southwest.

I was carrying all my gear with me. Raincoat, rubber boot, hats and gloves, thick gear to keep me warm, as well as a large flashlight.

I spotted the sign that said Bagby Hot Springs was only a few more miles away. I'm the dark, I could tell that the river had changed, turning into the Collowash River, the headwaters of the Clackamas.

Finally, I reached the parking lot of Bagby Hot Springs. I quickly paid my parking fee and dressed in the correct clothes for the weather. Then, turning on the flashlight, I headed off into the trails, lantern in one hand, flashlight in the other. The soft sound of ancient magic whispered to me as I walked, pulling me closer and closer to the place I needed to be.

I reached the top of a hill, overlooking the stream and stopped. Turning off my flashlight, I saw what I had come for.

A green light emerged from a tree leaning over the path. As I waited, it began to transform into a series of images.

First came a lily blossom, growing from the ground and slowly blooming in front of me. Behind the lily stood a doe and a fawn. The doe licked the fawn, which then stood up and bounded away after her as she rushed into the distance. But as the light grew brighter, I closed my eyes to avoid going blind.

There was the sound of rain on roofs, rushing water in the stream, and the songs of birds welcoming the next growing season

This was the sound of spring, one I had waited all year to hear.

I finally opened my eyes. She had emerged from the ground. I bowed low to her, and she curtsied in response.

I don’t mean to be rude, but the spirit of Spring has not updated her wardrobe since the late 1940s. She wears a blue dress with small patches and white pockets which draw the eyes. She has a small lap apron, and long blond ponytails, keeping her hair out of her face. She wears wire rimmed glasses. But the most stunning feature is her bright green eyes, as bright as the light of spring.

The formalities of our greeting over, she walks forward, a smile on her face, and places a kiss on my cheek. This causes me to blush. She’s like a mom who knows something embarrasses you, and therefore does it as often as she can to tease and annoy you.

“Nice to see you too, Lady Spring.”

She smiles as she follows me back down the trail to the car. The rain flows off her easily, and she isn’t bother by it at all. The benefits of being an immortal nature spirit. We finally reach the car and drive back towards Estacada. Once inside, she glances around and smiles.

I ignore the spirit making herself at home. I’m cold and wet, and it’s nearly three in the morning. Thank god I work at the school district, and this week is Spring Break. Otherwise, I’d have a lot of awkward explaining to do.

 

The return from Spring Break is worse than the return from Winter Break. My students and I do not get another day off until Memorial Day. With Memorial Day being at the end of May, the prospect of two months without a single day off is not a pleasant one.

My juniors and seniors are cramping for the AP Bio exam, and I look at them with pity, knowing their exhausted faces are worn weary. Half of them have livestock, and spent spring break pulling, vaccinating, and checking on newborn calves, rescuing them from the deep March mud. Even Eliza, the girl in my class who has summer calves, had two early calves this year, and that’s hell. The other half of my class spent Spring Break doing absolutely nothing (which I can begrudgingly accept as an excuse), or did nothing because of their mental health. Or they fell into all three categories.

“Wanna watch Crash Course and Bozeman Science?” I ask the half dead teenagers in front of me, and a few manage to deliver cheers as I pull up the videos.

As lunch arrives, my class heads out, and there is a knock on my window. I turn to see Lady Spring standing there with food. Lady Spring is a spirit who believes in feeding her Guardians. Thankfully for me, her cooking has improved dramatically since the invention of cookbooks. However, she refuses to let me take her handmade lunch to school myself. She demands I allow her to hand deliver it every day. Otherwise, she acts like I’ve insulted her mother.

Only one student dares enter my classroom at lunch, and only because she has permission to do so. She is like me.

She has the sight.

Eliza Grant, yes, the same Eliza from earlier, sits down and waves to Lady Spring, who waves back as she floats in through the walls. When it comes to class participation and understanding the material, Eliza is one of my best students. But as soon as she leaves the classroom, she becomes disengaged and disinterested. Ask her to do homework and you might get a half-hearted excuse for why she never does it. But I have a soft spot for her. While part of it stems from simple procrastination, another part of it stems from mental health issues. It runs through her family like a bad drug, and over the past two years, she’s had a lot of shit happen in her life.

But when Lady Spring bounces over to her and she wilts like a dead flower on top of her desk, I know something is seriously wrong.

"Eliza, what's bothering you?"

She doesn't talk at first until Lady Spring sits down across from her and forces her to look one of us in the eyes. She takes a deep breath before speaking.

"They let my ex out of jail instead of enrolling him in a treatment program."

I suck in a deep breath, and Lady Spring looks at me with concern. After summer arrived last year, Eliza was assaulted by her ex boyfriend. He went to jail on unrelated charges, and despite all the shit he put her through, Eliza decided not to press charges, and simply wrote a letter to his counselors. She asked me to proofread it, and that was how I discovered what he did to her.

Since then, she's had worse and worse crashes in her depression, and her parents didn't enroll her in therapy until she landed herself in the ER because she was afraid she was going to slash her wrists. Then her parents suddenly remembered that not only had their child been assaulted, but she had been diagnosed with depression two years before the freaking assault, and perhaps needed a little bit more than Zoloft and encouragement and being told to "stop overreacting" (You might have guessed by this point that Eliza does not get along well with her parents, and I have often heard of it. Who tells their own daughter to stop overreacting to assault?).

"Does Sam know? Or Jackie?"

"Mom said I couldn't tell them he's back at home. But I did anyhow. I need their support since they seem to be the only ones giving it. Besides you, of course.” She adds at the end.

Lady Spring hugs the poor girl, and Eliza hugs her back, tightly. When she came to me her sophomore year, she needed to learn to control her sight, and fast, or else her family would figure out something was wrong. And as I taught her, she and Lady Spring became close friends.

"Hey, where are you traveling for your organization this summer?" I ask, trying to lighten the mood.

"Out to Bend. Why?"

I smile, trying to be friendly without openly stating my intentions. "Well, I've got a cousin out there who might be able to help you more with your sight. Maybe I could call and talk to him?"

She grins and nods, but I know that instead of calling Kyle, I'll be talking to Avery, and instructing him to go and talk to her. Having suffered as much as she has, she deserves to have a chance to talk to someone who has a vague idea of what she has to deal with on a daily basis. Avery knows what it’s like to be an outcast as the only member of his family without the sight.

Maybe she'll even like him. I am a big optimist.

 

As the school year progresses, Lady Spring is obvious annoyed at me. For unknown reasons, but she is annoyed.

Finally, she grabs a photo album of mine and shoves a photo of one of my old girlfriends in my face.

_Ah, it’s the usual get married and have kids spiel._

"Why are you so worried about this? I'll find love soon enough, have some kids. Besides, you still have Alistair's side of the family. One of those three is guaranteed to have a child with the sight." I snap, tired of this game. Lady Spring has always been the mother in the room asking her child when she’s going to get a grandchild.

She groans and stomps her feet, clearly annoyed, and takes off for the hills, basically disappearing within seconds. I have no idea where she has gone, but she'll be back eventually. So I return to my book and read.

 

The winter snow was just beginning to melt, and Natalia set tea on the stove. She was cold after she'd checked Matthew's old trap lines and found a frozen rabbit she would have to thaw out in order to skin.

The whispers of magic reached her before she saw the woman, surrounded in green light, and whispering to the plants struggling to break through the snow.

She blinked in surprise. She had never seen the other Seasons besides Winter before, and green was Lady Spring's color. The raw power the radiated off the woman could only mean one thing.

She was Lady Spring.

The lady looked up when the kettle began to whistle, and Natalia heard herself speak as she opened the window slightly. "Would you like some tea, Lady Spring?"

The woman nodded, and Natalia turned, removing the tea from the stove and setting it down on the kitchen counter.

She had been here for seven years now, as the Guardian of Lord Winter and his eternal soulmate, Matthew. Lady Spring came into the house slowly, and smiled when Natalia set down the cup of tea for her.

 _Show him kindness._ Matthew had told her, and she was getting quite good at showing all sorts of spirits kindness. People, however, were a bit more annoying and demanding, but she was improving there as well.

You had to be nice when you lived so far north that you had as few neighbors as she did.

The spirit smiled at her, and glanced at the lamp sitting on the mantle over the wood stove. She turned to gaze at Natalia with curious eyes.

"Do you know of Matthew, Lady Spring?" Natalia asked as she set down a warm roll to go with the spirit’s tea.

The spirit smiled and nodded with some fondness. "So I guess Lord Winter isn't asleep for the entire year. He actually spends some time with the rest of you?"

She nods again, and Natalia feels herself smile at the woman across from her. "Did you have something to do with it, because Matthew leaves me nice little messages in the dust, and he still doesn't know how it happened."

Lady Spring laughs, the sound of raindrops the only thing Natalia can hear, but she nods.

"Lord Summer and Lady Autumn?"

Another nod.

"Should I tell them?"

A smile while shaking her head. Natalia grins. "Then my lips are sealed. I will keep it a secret."

The sun begins to sink low into the sky, swiftly disappearing as it so often does in the Arctic, and Natalia offers the spirit what she can. "Please, stay the night and enjoy a meal with me. We might have to wait a while for it to completely thaw, but it should be good."

The spirit nods, and they later share a meal of rabbit stew.

In the morning, the spirit is gone, but when Natalia checks her traplines, she finds an unusual abundance of animals.

"Thank you, Lady Spring. Thank you."

 

Lady Spring is tearing through my cabinets, looking for a map of Canada (I don't know why, but she made it clear when she pointed to my world map in frustration, as though enlisting me to help her).

Which I wasn't, because she got upset when I handed her the only map of Canada I had, which was a map of the US on one side, and Canada and Mexico on the other, making it illegible to most people and apparently, most spirits.

She finally grins as she steps back from my map folder, yanking out a map of Alaska, which confuses me until I sees it has a map of the Yukon Territory on the back.

She unfolds it and get to work. She lays it out on the floor, and then grabs a pen, tracing down lines of longitude and latitude and finally places a dot on the map, and writes a set of coordinates. They are super exact coordinates, too. Not just to find a city. With these coordinates, you could find a house.

She grins, and shoves the map into my face with joy. I pulls it down and look at her with skepticism in my eyes. "You want me to go to the Yukon?"

She nods and I snort. "Lady Spring, you're crazy. I can't go now!"

She rushes to the calendar I keeps on my wall and points at the first days of summer, as if to say _"Go then!"_

"What are you up to, Lady Spring?"I ask. This is incredibly suspicious behavior on her part.

She shoves the map back into my face, and is clearly getting upset. I don't know what to do, so finally, I groan and give up.

"Fine, I give in! Let me go look at schedules and travel plans."

She leans over me as I click on various options on my laptop. "PDX to Seattle, Seattle to Juneau, Juneau to Whitehorse, Whitehorse to Dawson, and Dawson to the middle of fucking nowhere."

She snorts, and I sigh. "This is going to be spendy, Lady Spring. Why are you sending me to Canada again?"

She shakes her head while smiling, never a good sign, and I sigh once more. "Fine, I'll do it. Let me make freaking plans."

I buy tickets, and she smiles, writing down all the dates on a notebook she stole from me, and then she disappears into the night sky.

I shake my head. "What are you up too now, Lady Spring?"

 

Natalia was surprised to wake up to smell food cooking, and when she slipped downstairs, Lady Spring was in her kitchen, and the food she was frying up was not something Natalia had often seen since leaving her foster home in Vancouver.

Bacon.

Her mouth watered at the smell, and the spirit smiled when she saw Natalia enter the room. Natalia, however, knew something was up. The first time was a polite coincidence. The second time meant something was going on.

Spirits don't usually bother the Guardians of other Spirits.

They sat and ate a silent breakfast, and then Natalia sighed. "I don't mean to be rude, Lady Spring, but why are you here?"

She pulls two things from her pockets sew into the front of her dress. The first is travel dates, from PDX (Portland International Airport) to Dawson. It includes the day, which Natalia checks.

It's a Wednesday, the day the supply plane usually comes into Dawson.

The second item is a photo of a young man, smiling at the camera. It's in the style of the school portrait. Maybe he's a teacher?

The spirit smiles fondly at the image, and Natalia pauses.

"Are you sending your Guardian to visit me?"

The spirit happily nods, and Natalia swiftly realized why she has the travel schedule. "And you want me to pick him up from Dawson? What if he's late because of the weather?"

Lady Spring crosses her arms and scowls at the skies, and Natalia realizes that when speaking of spirits which control the seasons and weather, asking them how they intend to do a thing is probably insulting (it's not like Matthew had to teach her how to deal with this! He never had too).

"Okay, fine. I don't understand what you're doing, but I'll live with it. Does he know I'll be picking him up?"She asked, trying to placate the spirit.

Lady Spring shakes her head, and Natalia sighs. "Alright, Lady Spring. I won't ask. Just please tell him that someone will be picking him up so he doesn't wander off into the goddamn wilderness."

She nods, and then disappears once more, leaving Natalia to wonder what she has gotten herself into.

 

School comes to a close before summer arrives, and when I come home, I find that Lady Spring has been packing me a duffel bag full of gear during my absence on the final day. Batteries, a radio phone, and similar things to survive in the middle of nowhere. I sigh and relent, allowing her to do as she pleases.

My uncle Alistair calls me that night.

"I understand from Kyle that you're setting your cousin Avery up on a blind date. Does the poor girl know what's coming?"

"She's got the sight, thought it might be nice to give her someone closer to her age to talk to than 26 year old me. I know Avery doesn't have the sight, but at least he'll know about it, and besides, he can always talk sheep with her. She's a cow person, but she plans to major in AG Science."

Alistair sighs. "Sometimes you act like your mother and other times you act in a way that would mystify the gods. Fine, I'll go along with it. Oh, and Kyle said you are taking a trip. What you doing that for?"

"Lady Spring wants me too, threw a tantrum when I tried to refuse-OW, that hurt!" I snapped when she punched me in the arm.

Alistair laughs. "And it serves you right, nephew! Well, if Lady Spring wills it, then you'd best amuse her. Do what you need to do."

"I'll call you from Juneau, Uncle Alistair."

"Take care, lad."

 

I arrived in Juneau and called my family. Apparently Avery and Kyle had went and met Eliza at a fast food place near the convention center she was staying at, and Avery and Eliza really hit it off. Though, when I talked to Avery, I was delivered a message from Eliza.

"She says that while that date is nice, she isn't exactly at the age where blind dates are a usual occurrence yet, and she would appreciate if you never did that again."

I chuckled, and after talking to my uncle and all my cousins, I hung up the phone.

I was at the last outpost of civilization.

"Well, no turning back now."

 

Natalia waited at the edge of the Dawson airfield, wondering when her guest was going to arrive and how comfortable he would be with her ATV.

The small plane came in for a landing, and the pilot waved at all the people from the town and outside of it, before he began to unload things. A young gentleman leaped out to help him.

Natalia swiftly recognized the man from the photo and hid a little gasp. He was tall and had muscles and a tan she was unused to seeing this far north. As a matter of fact, everyone seemed interested in the young man. He had honey colored hair and eyes as blue as the sky.

Natalia, however, had the photo still, so she didn't need to jostle and shove in order to see him, simply looking at the photo instead.

She waited until he had grabbed his duffel bag to approach him. "Sorry for bothering you, but I believe I've been asked to pick you up." She handed him the photo.

He looks at her and blinks, and she offers a hand. "Natalia Arlovskaya."

"Alfred F. Jones."

They shake hands, and the world swarms with vibrant colors. While Natalia hears birdsong, Alfred hears the howling of wolves. If he didn't know she was a Guardian before, he did now.

After they pull apart, she glances him over. "Have you ever ridden in an ATV before?"

He shook his head, and she sighed. "Thought as much. Come on, let's get out of here."

 

Natalia loaded his things onto the ATV and tied them down before making him get on it. She closed off her sight completely in order to focus on driving through the forest.

They said nothing until they reached the edge of her home, and she stopped the ATV, beginning to unload things for him.

"So, you're Lord Winter's Guardian?" He asked after a moment.

"For the last seven years. And you're Lady Spring's Guardian?"

"Yeah, for three years."

They nodded, and looked at each other. Finally, he spoke.

"Look, I don't know why Lady Spring sent me here, but if you want me to go, I'll leave."

Natalia sighed, and finally looked at him. "Can you butcher a fish?"

He nodded in surprise.

"Anything larger?"

"I grew up hunting mule deer when I visited my cousins in Eastern Oregon."

"Good. Summer isn't a season of rest for me. It's the season of preparation, and you're going to help me."

 

Within a few days, everyone in the area had stopped by to say hello. I was cheerful about it all, but Natalia wasn't kidding when she said she'd keep me busy.

I repaired nets and snares, butchered, smoked, and dried meat. I tended the garden, and sometimes I even cooked.

Natalia lived here alone, but the house had three bedrooms. The one I was sleeping in was dusty and had an unused feel to it.

_Guardian, spirit, and apprentice can all live here. But there will be no apprentice for years to come._

So I slept in that room.

I came to respect Natalia. She listened to my chatter, and would rarely chime in unless she had something absolutely fascinating to say, but once she started talking, we would debate for long hours. She was swift and fast with a knife, and despite my fears of growing bored with our limited meal options, she managed to make fish taste new every night.

"So Natalia, where did you come from?" I asked one evening as we were washing up from butchering salmon.

"Vancouver, BC."

"You still have family there?"

Her grimace told me enough. "Sorry." I said, unsure what one should say in that situation.

She shook her head, but it was clear she wanted to change the subject. "What do you do for a living?" She finally asked.

"I work at a school district. I teach science. If nothing else, I'm enjoying this trip for an opportunity to study northern climates-"

"Whoa there, Bill Nye! I went to high school, I don't need a remedial course on the tundra." But she was laughing, and I chuckled.

 

One night, I was half asleep when I saw something glowing outside.

Eyes opening, I crept to the window. It was still bright outside, but this thing seemed unusual. I pulled the cardboard blocker out of the window, and was about to open the blinds when Natalia passed by the window. She walked over towards the tree line, stopping and motioning into the distance.

A big white bear and a huge wolf appeared from the forest, and she calmly knelt down next to both of them.

After the panic and shock had worn off, I realized these creatures were not actually animals. The glows they produced revealed them as spirits, and strong spirits at that.

And the wolf was glowing blue.

"Lord Winter..." I whispered as I opened the blinds completely.

The wolf suddenly turned, and Natalia did as well. I said nothing, holding still as both gazed at me from the edge of the forest.

Finally, Natalia turned away and continued to speak with the creatures.

The bear emitted a red glow, but it blended with the blue of Lord Winter, turning the light purple. Clearly not a season himself, but an important spirit nonetheless. And one bound to Winter, at that.

Finally, the two turned and disappeared into the woods once more. Natalia came back into the house, and she seemed upset.

I entered the hall and walked out towards her. "Hey, you okay?"

She didn't look at me, but her eyes were watering, and I wondered what could have made her so upset. Finally she inhaled a deep, shaky breath.

"There's a dead body of a kid out there. We need to go fetch it."

After a few minutes, we were dressed and out the door.

 

The paw prints lead to a location deep within the forest, and we stopped. The body of a child was there, and Natalia picked her up with a caring touch. She had been out here for a while, if her face was anything to judge by, gnawed on by all sorts of nearby animals. Natalia reached carefully down and pulled lose as necklace. A small carving hung on the end of the cord.

"Oh, poor Piper. Your mother was hoping for the best."

I looked at the girl, barely recognizable. "How do you know who she is?" I asked, unsure.

Natalia pointed at the necklace, a wooden carving. "Matthew made that for her. It's a grizzly bear. She was the only other person he made a bear for. She was twelve when she went missing in the spring."

I had heard Natalia say the name Matthew with fondness before, but I was unsure who this Matthew was. But now her voice was one of grief.

Natalia cradled the body and set it on her ATV.

"Go back to the house. I need to do this alone." She said as she got on.

I wanted to object, but in the end, I nodded, and did as I was told. The house wasn'tfar, and it was clear Natalia needed to do this alone.

 

Waiting was the worse. The brief night swiftly came and went, though my watch told me it was still the wee hours of the morning.

After a while, I heard the sound of the ATV returning, and I went down to wait for Natalia by the front door.

She came in with tired eyes, and I could tell she had been crying.

I reached down and embraced her tightly, and she began to sob. I held her close for a long time, until she finally pulled away.

"Life up here... Sometimes I hate it, but this was the first place that ever felt like a home to me. How can I live somewhere else? And what about Matthew? Will he be able to find Lord Winter if I leave this area?"

I hated to interrupt her, but I had too. "Who is Matthew?" I asked in between her sobs.

She rubbed at her eyes. "The previous Guardian, but he... He fell in love with Lord Winter, and they live in world together now. He is the polar bear spirit. I only knew him for a few months as an old man, but he made me feel at home, safe... I miss him."

She was trying to wipe away more tears, and suddenly she laughed.

"Sometimes you remind me of him. It's strange, because I only knew him as an old man, but sometimes the way you talk... I just feel like I saw Matthew for a second."

I pulled her back into my arms when she burst into another round of sobbing.

After a while, I helped her up the stairs and put her into her bed. She was almost completely asleep, but as I went to leave, she spoke.

"Will you please stay here until I'm asleep?"

I nodded, sitting on the floor next to her bed until her eyes had closed.

Had Lady Spring sent me here to help her through this? Or was Lady Spring trying to achieve something else?

I didn't even realize my own eyes were closing, and I drifted into a world of dreams.

 

We spent the next several days close to the house, and Natalia and I cut wood for winter fires.

She seemed distant, and finally I came up to her, recognizing what she was doing from an experience I had had with Eliza.

"Natalia, it's not your fault that this happened."

"Matthew told me that you can use your magic to find people, and I went looking for her so many times! My lack of experience killed Piper!" She dropped her splitting maul and leaned against a nearby tree. "I used to always know when the other kids in the foster home were in trouble, and I could come to the rescue. Now I'm just useless."

I grabbed her hands, startling myself as much as her. "Natalia, look me in the eyes! It was not your fault!" I shouted, and I was surprised by the loudness of my own voice.

So was she, given her sudden silence.

"Look, I have a student. Sweetest girl that ever lived, and she has the sight! I taught her everything I could, including how to learn the intentions of others. But despite that, her ex boyfriend tried to rape her! She thought it was all her fault, but it wasn't!"

We looked at each other for a long time, and I spoke again. "Sometimes our magic wants to protect us. I tried to stop my mother's cancer before, but magic knows when and when not to leave things be. Piper's death is no more your fault than Eliza's assault is hers, or my mother's death is mine."

Natalia began to cry again, and I held her close as long as I could.

We eventually went inside, and she fell asleep in my arms as we sat on my bed. I carried her back to her own room and tucked her into the bed, humming until she fell into a deep sleep.

 

After two months, I had to leave.

I packed quietly and quickly, and Natalia said very little as we danced around each other, avoiding the saying of goodbyes.

We returned to Dawson, and I headed towards the plane after it had finished unloading. This pilot had the mail, and was collecting orders. He was clearly impatient to be heading back to Whitehorse.

Natalia suddenly caught my hand and spoke. "Come back if you can."

I paused, and then nodded. "I will. I promise."

Then she leaned up on tiptoes and placed a kiss on my cheek, rushing away after she had done that.

I stood there in shock until the pilot called to me to get going, and I boarded the plane.

I watched her disappear as we left, and in that moment, I realized that I needed to return to this place, this land.

I had to return to Natalia.

 

_I will. I promise._

Natalia thought about that phrase. She knew how often it had been broken before. Her mother and father, all the people who came and met her, but never adopted her from that home.

But Matthew had never broken his promises, and she had to hope Alfred would be the same.

Winter came, and Matthew looked at her for a long time that first night they were back.

The next message he left in the dust was a few simple words.

_He loves you back._

 

Spring arrived, and Lady Spring was all smiles when she saw me. She knew her little matchmaking scheme had worked.

As had mine. I soon received a text from Avery, in his senior year of high school with his beautiful girlfriend at the OSU Bend campus.

Eliza was grinning through the camera, ruffling up Avery’s hair and looking incredibly happy with how her life was going at the moment.

I quit my job at Estacada as of the end of that year, sold my house and most of my things, and moved into an apartment temporarily. I began loading my books into boxes and I went to go see my family one last time.

The heat was pleasant as I walked with my cousins and my uncle and Eliza. We talked, they sorted through things I was getting rid off, and took what they wanted. Eliza whacked me in the arm, but thanked me nonetheless.

I would miss them, and I promised to visit when I could, but Oregon, my home for so long, was now the place I needed to leave.

 

I arrived in Juneau via airplane with my clothes and the lantern of Lady Spring. The rest of my items were coming via ship.

I stored my books and a few other things in a storage locker in Juneau, paying for an entire year of storage in case I wasn't able to collect all my things before the winter set in. Then I went to Whitehorse and from there, Dawson.

She wasn't there, but I didn't worry. I asked if someone would be kind enough to loan me their ATV or drive me out to the edge of her place, and someone accepted, driving me right to the edge of the forest path leading to her house.

After I had thanked the older gentleman, I asked him for his name, but he smiled, a set of dark blue eyes looking at me, yellow curls just starting to grey emerging from under his hat.

"Just call me Mr. Williams, young man. Now go on. Neither she nor you can wait all day."

I thanked him one last time, and then headed down the path.

There was the distinctive thud of the splitting maul hitting wood, and the crack of the wood splitting. Natalia had a decent pile that was growing by the moment when I emerged from the forest and saw her.

"Hey, need a hand?" I called out to her, and she nearly dropped the maul in shock.

"Alfred?"

Before I could answer, she had run to my side, and we were embracing. She smiled for a moment, and then suddenly got angry. "What took you so long?! You can only stay a few weeks now!" She snapped, annoyed with the time it had taken me to get here.

I shook my head. "Actually, as long as the Government of Canada doesn't kick me out, I can stay here forever."

She stared at me, confused.

"I quit my job, sold my house and most of my stuff, though all my books will have to be brought in from Juneau. I can stay here forever."

Natalia seemed to be in shock, but after a few seconds, she broke into a wide smile. She wrapped her arms around me, pressing her lips to mine, and this time, I responded.

When we finally pulled apart, she smiled and whispered a set of words I had never realized I needed to hear so badly before.

"Welcome home."

 

_Ten years later…_

"Eve, Matthew, get back here!" I shouted as our seven year old daughter and four year old son take off through the woods. In the height of spring, they refuse to listen, grinning like loons as they disappear a little further down the path.

Natalia laughs. "Don't even bother, you know they need the run."

I sigh and shake my head. "Fine, but don't make me be the bad guy when they have to bathe tonight."

Spring has arrived, evidenced by the green glowing spirit that has taken over the upstairs bedroom. She floats nearby, smiling.

Both the children have the sight, and we laugh as the kids run about, smiling in the joys of light and less snow. Summer is almost upon us.

My cousin Avery and Eliza were married four years ago, and we went to see the wedding, a smiling and joyous affair held in the heat of central Oregon. They have a little boy named Ryan who just turned two, and Lady Spring has taken an interest in him. If he has the sight, I suspect, he will be her next Guardian.

One day, Natalia and I may apprentice our children as future Guardians. They may chose to leave this place, or they might stay here as Guardians of the seasons.

Either way, I made a good choice the day I came north to marry the woman I loved.

And who could believe that this was all thanks to that stubborn spirit that's been stuck with my family since the Revolutionary War?


End file.
